DestinAsian

“AS YOU MOVE THROUGH THIS LIFE AND THIS WORLD YOU CHANGE THINGS SLIGHTLY, YOU LEAVE MARKS BEHIND, HOWEVER SMALL. AND IN RETURN, LIFE — AND TRAVEL — LEAVES MARKS ON YOU.”—Anthony Bourdain With winter coming soon to the Northern Hemisphere, that long-awaited ski trip to Japan — something that was off-limits during the previous two seasons — can finally become a reality. Who wouldn’t want to balance some action in Hokkaido’s powder playgrounds with onsen soaks and superlative seafood? Being more of a beach person myself, I tend to gravitate toward warm-weather destinations like Bali and the Maldives. But wherever your preferences lie, I’m sure you have the upcoming holidays all planned out. This, our closing issue of 2022, is jam-packed with travel ideas for the next year and beyond. Two months…

Though she was born and raised in England, Rinku Dutt’s childhood memories are filled with the fragrances and aromas of home-cooked Bengali food — her parents had moved here in the 1960s from Kolkata, where her grandfather owned one of the most popular restaurants in town. After a three-year stint in Kolkata working with fashion designer Debarun Mukherjee, Dutt returned to Britain with a heightened appreciation for the city’s street food, a passion that eventually led to the launch — first in Chartham, Kent, then in London — of a Bengali food stall named Raastawala. More recently she has published Kolkata: Recipes from the Heart of Bengal (Smith Street Books), a beautiful cookbook filled with family recipes including Raastawala’s signature kati rolls. When in Kolkata, what are your go-to spots for…

HONGKONG Times have changed in a city once famously dismissive of its historic buildings: the trend set by recent high-profile revitalization projects like The Murray hotel and the Tai Kwun arts center is continuing on both sides of Victoria Harbour. Launched a few months before the pandemic, 618 Shanghai Street (618shanghaistreet.com) in Kowloon’s Mong Kok district is a not-for-profit mall that incorporates the restored facades and verandas of the largest cluster of prewar shophouses in town. Independent local brands take center stage here: Wai Chi Street Playground offers an assortment of home goods such as old-school porcelain bowls, vintage glassware, and Hong Kong–made Camel flasks; incense-scented Douguya sells refined Japanese teaware and antiques; while REstore is stocked with a smorgasbord of quirky souvenirs. Also noteworthy is the excellent Malaysian eatery Semua…

JODI Having discovered a mutual love for India’s rich handicraft traditions, former fashion stylists Gauri Verma and Karuna Laungani quit their magazine jobs eight years ago to found a clothing label that celebrates the centuries-old art of block printing through a contemporary lens. Working with wholly natural Indian fabrics and skilled hand-block artisans in the Rajasthani city of Jaipur, they turn out flowy, happily hued dresses, shirts, jackets, and nightwear embellished with floral and animal motifs — think parrots, pomegranates, pineapples, and Bengal tigers — inspired by their travels across the subcontinent. For those looking to accessorize, JODI also carries a line of handcrafted jewelry (thejodilife.com). SANGARU Sandeep Sangaru’s deep commitment to Indian craftsmanship began almost two decades ago during a visit to Srinagar, where he first encountered the Kashmiri woodworking techniques of…

LUCERNE Taking over the 1906-built Palace Luzern hotel on the shores of swan-speckled Lake Lucerne, the latest outpost from Mandarin Oriental is a grand Belle Époque wedding cake on the outside and a heaven for lovers of clever contemporary design on the inside. A smart yet sympathetic five-year restoration has seen decades of alterations stripped away by London-based architectural firm Jestico + Whiles to reveal the original waltz-worthy checkerboard floors, buttercup-yellow stucco walls, and coral-colored scagliola pillars. A vaulted corridor leads to a carousel of public spaces: a suave lobby, a sunny veranda for afternoon tea, and a terrace shaded by century-old chestnut trees. Upstairs are 136 rooms and suites in a palette of mauve and navy blue, creams and mossy greens inspired by the surrounding mountains. Everyone gets a lake…

LONDON Looming large on the south bank of the River Thames ever since it began supplying the British capital with electricity in the 1930s, Battersea Power Station (batterseapowerstation.co.uk) is as iconic to Londoners as Westminster Abbey or Tower Bridge. It is said that during World War II, German bombers left it alone because the white plumes of smoke that belched from its 101-meter-high chimneys helped them navigate on foggy days. A decade later the coal-fired plant was expanded, adding a cavernous boiler house so large that it could fit St. Paul’s Cathedral inside. Eventually, in the mid 1980s, Battersea was decommissioned. And there it stood as the powers that be dithered, a striking landmark to some, a decaying postindustrial eyesore to others, used only for magazine shoots and as a filming…